In September, Jones and O’Hare, only a few months into the run of Acme F&B, which they opened with two partners, abruptly left the kitchen in the hands of a new chef, Norman Grimm. Not long after, they sold their shares of the business to their partners, Barcadia owners Brooke Humphries and Brianna Larson. According to Culture Map, Jones and O’Hare are keeping mum about the concept for now, but it won’t be fine dining.

Bistro Watel’s, the subject of this week’s review, is a very personal restaurant. It has the stamp of chef-owner René Peeters‘ character all over it — from the Tex-French cassoulet and assorted offal on the menu, to the eclectic wine list, to the charming little watercolors on the walls (painted by Peeters’ brother Jean-Pierre), to the mix-n-match dishes.

Order the grilled Belgian endive appetizer, and it might arrive on a pretty rose-and-white plate as shown, with gold and green accents and a Mediterranean feel. Order something else, and it might come in a knobby, clear glass bowl that looks like American Depression glass.

Much of the dishware, which altogether has the feeling of a collection assembled over decades, is small and dainty in comparison with what you normally see in restaurants. Generally these days, the prevailing aesthetic, developed in the U.S. since the New American Cuisine movement born in the 1980s, involves plain, large plates that serve as canvasses for the art of the plated dish. They might be round, white and oversized — as they adamantly were when New American Cuisine was in its youth — or they might be rectangular or oblong, maybe in a solid color. Still, they’re generally fairly large compared with your grandmother’s dainty dishes, with enough space so that the composition of the dish, with its painted stripes of sauce or streaks of dried cherry dust, can stand out.

For the lead review this week, I visited Bistro Watel’s, René Peeters‘ new place in the old York Street space. I also made a couple stops at Zafaron Grill, a Persian restaurant in Far North Dallas. Have you been to either place? We’d love to know what you think — of the restaurants and the reviews.

Man, this looks like it was a fun evening: a dinner in honor of Robert Camuto’s new book Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, in the back room at Jimmy’s. Sharon Hage, in Dallas briefly from New York, cooked — the orzo with pancetta, rabbit and wild greens pictured here; lamb with cauliflower, mashed potatoes and mint and more. Alfonso Cevola was there and wrote a delicious post about it on his blog, On the Wine Trail in Italy.